A small group of Black Atlanta immigrants listened intently last month as Uzo Akpele shared guidance on how to navigate the heightened threat of detention and deportation under a second President Donald Trump administration.
“If you are undocumented, you should have a plan in place for if you get detained,” the Nigerian immigration lawyer told the 10 primarily West African immigrants who gathered in a Tucker conference room, as well as virtual onlookers. “Especially if you have minor children.”
Akpele offered practical advice, urging listeners to resist illegal searches by police who do not show them a warrant signed by a judge and pushing undocumented parents of young kids to designate a temporary guardian, a family lawyer, and someone who can access their financial accounts.
The gathering was organized by the African Immigrant Collective (AIM), an Atlanta-based organization founded by Nnamdi Ihenacho last spring to support fellow immigrants settling into their new lives in America.
Ihenacho said AIM is more important than ever due to the fear that so many immigrants are experiencing now that Trump has begun to implement the strict anti-immigration policies he promised while campaigning.
Shortly after Trump took office in January, Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agents began conducting raids and making arrests across the country. That includes metro Atlanta, home to approximately 190,000 Black immigrants — the fourth-largest population of its kind in the United States, according to 2019 Pew Research.
In that same month, Trump signed into law the Laken Riley Act, which requires the Department of Homeland Security to detain any undocumented immigrant who admits to or has been arrested, charged, or convicted of burglary, theft, larceny, or shoplifting; assault of a police officer; or “any crime that results in death or serious bodily injury.”
Immigrant advocates and attorneys have decried the law as a tool to target undocumented migrants that won’t actually make communities safer.
Black immigrants living in Atlanta have been galvanized into collective action in response, according to Osei Kweku, a Ghanaian-American media personality and influencer who says the shared anxiety has brought immigrants together locally.
“There’s a lot of different message groups that are trying to share information on what people need to know about their rights, and what they can do,” Kweku told Capital B Atlanta. “Immigration attorneys are becoming a lot more vocal, and I feel like their voices are being amplified even more.”
Ihenacho, a Nigerian immigrant, says that was the inspiration for AIM’s February community mixer, adding that he intends to continue organizing these kinds of events so that attendees can openly discuss pressing questions and steps immigrants can take to protect themselves.
While most Black immigrants living in Atlanta have roots in the Caribbean, African-born immigrants — primarily from Nigeria, Ethiopia, and Ghana — have made up a larger share of arrivals in recent years. Akpele said she expects a prolonged application process for immigrants looking to obtain a green card, regardless of country of origin.
“Many [employees] are being moved to immigration enforcement, so there are fewer officers to work on the same volume of cases,” Akpele said.
Though Trump’s administration has empowered immigration officers to make arrests in schools and churches, Akpele reminded the mixer’s attendees that immigrants still have rights regardless of status. She said those who are stopped by police are only required to share their name, not their immigration status.
“Due process is due process,” she said, also stipulating that immigrants who have lived in the U.S. for fewer than two years can be designated for expedited removal. “And, for now, America is still America.”
Despite the outpouring of support and information sharing, Kweku said there’s a palpable sense of dread that things could change at any moment.
“Federal employees are losing their jobs, which we would have thought was one of the safest positions,” he said. “So I think anything is on the table when it comes to policies being reversed and the uncertainty that comes with being in America in 2025.”
